Industry

APPEA has congratulated Madeleine King and Chris Bowen on their recent appointments as part of the Federal Opposition’s ministerial reshuffle.

APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said the industry looked forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the shadow ministers and the Opposition to ensure the safe and sustainable development of Australia’s oil and gas resources.

The appointment of Ms King to the important resources portfolio, in addition to her existing role as Shadow Minister for Trade, is recognition of the critical role Australia’s resources make to the economy.

“Our natural resources play a vital role and contribution in underpinning our economic well-being with hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs relying on a safe, reliable and affordable natural gas supply,” Mr McConville said.

READ MORE

Dr Hussein Moghaddam, Senior Energy Forecast Analyst Energy Economics and Forecasting Department, says demand for Green LNG is growing and has the potential to preserve natural gas as a crucial part of the energy mix.

According to the latest, 2020 edition of the GECF Global Gas Outlook 2050, the demand for natural gas is expected to rise by 50% from 3,950 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2019 to 5,920 bcm in 2050, as gas remains the cleanest-burning hydrocarbon.

In spite of that, meeting global targets for climate change mitigation is one of the biggest challenges.

READ MORE

The Australian Government should embrace measures for long-term business investment that will ensure sustained job creation and economic growth for Australia, according to APPEA’s 2021-22 pre-Budget submission.

Acknowledging the Government’s actions taken during 2020 and as part of the previous Federal Budget, APPEA has made a number of recommendations to the Government that build on the success of these reforms.

APPEA’s five key recommendations will help to create certainty for capital-intensive industries – including oil and gas – for sustained investment that will drive job creation, increase employment opportunities and promote domestic spending.

APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said reforms from the Government’s 2020-21 Budget – including the temporary full expensing and loss carry back measures – helped to guide Australia out of recession by the end of 2020.

READ MORE

The release of the Graeme Samuel review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) assessing Australia’s environmental regulatory framework has been welcomed by the oil and gas industry.

The review makes several recommendations to the Australian Government around the reform and modernisation of Australia’s environmental legislative framework.

The focus on improving environmental, heritage and biodiversity conservation outcomes, while delivering greater regulatory efficiency to business and the community, is particularly supported by APPEA and its members.

APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said the sector welcomed the EPBC Act review’s final recommendations that focus on reducing the existing regulatory burden for approvals and recommends ways of streamlining environmental approval processes without lowering environmental protections.

READ MORE

Australia’s geoscientists benefitted from a sharp increase in employment opportunities in the final quarter of 2020 according to the latest AIG Australian geoscientist employment survey.

Unemployment amongst professional geoscientists (geologists, geophysicists and allied Earth scientists) recommenced a downward trend after improvement in employment prospects stalled throughout the previous three quarters of the year.

AIG President, Mr Andrew Waltho, welcomed the results.  “It’s great to see job prospects for Australian geoscientists ending what had been a tentative 2020, on such a positive note,” he said.

Nationally, between the beginning of October and end of December 2020, geoscientist unemployment fell sharply from 10.6% to 4.5%, the fourth-lowest rate recorded since the survey series commenced in June 2009 and the lowest rate recorded since June 2012, at the height of the resources boom.

READ MORE

Total has withdrawn from the American Petroleum Institute (API), citing differences over API’s position on climate change.

The French energy giant said this followed a detailed analysis of API’s climate change position, whereafter it decided not to renew its membership for 2021.

Total said it assesses all industry associations it is a member of each year to ensure they are aligned with the group’s climate change position.

The six key points it uses to test this alignment are:

Total said that following the 2019 and 2020 reviews, API's positions were assessed as "partially aligned" with those of the Group.

READ MORE

Chevron has announced a Series C investment in San Jose-based Blue Planet Systems Corporation, a start-up that manufactures and develops carbonate aggregates and carbon capture technology intended to reduce the carbon intensity of industrial operations.

The San Ramon headquartered company said: “Chevron Technology Ventures’ ongoing investment in carbon capture and utilization technologies supports Chevron’s focus on a diverse portfolio of lower-carbon solutions."

In connection with its investment, Chevron and Blue Planet also executed a letter of intent to collaborate on potential pilot projects and commercial development in key geographies, with the goal of jointly advancing lower-carbon opportunities.

Blue Planet creates carbonate-based building aggregate made from flue gas-captured CO2.

READ MORE

EnergyQuest estimates that Australia exported a record 78.0 Mt of LNG in 2020, up from 77.5 Mt in 2019. This is a good result given the disruptions to Gorgon, the fact that Prelude hadn’t produced since early February, issues seen at Wheatstone with reduced production, and the COVID-19 destruction of LNG demand, particularly early in the year.

Australian production was above Qatar nameplate capacity of 77 Mtpa. (The precise level of Qatar LNG exports is uncertain because Qatar does not disclose its actual LNG export volumes.)

The Australian projects operated at 89% of operation nameplate capacity of 87.8 Mtpa.

Western Australian production was up by 5% on 2019 to 43.7 Mt, but Northern Territory again proved the standout with production up by 11% on 2019 to 11.7 Mt.

READ MORE

Shell has sold a 26.5% interest of its 100% stake in Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) project to Global Infrastructure Partners Australia for $3.25 billion in a deal which includes LNG storage tanks, jetties and operations infrastructure.

“This decision is consistent with Shell’s strategy of selling non-core assets in order to further high-grade and simplify Shell’s portfolio,” Shell said in a statement.

“The sale will contribute to Shell’s expected divestment proceeds, without impact on people or the operations of the QCLNG venture and aligns Shell’s interest in the common facilities with its 73.75 per cent interest in the overall QCLNG venture.”

READ MORE

Prelude has resumed LNG cargoes shipments after being offline for 11 months as a result of technical issues, Royal Dutch Shell announced this week.

Prelude was forced to suspend production last February after an electrical trip and subsequently faced a series of technical issues that delayed the restart.

However, Shell said that Prelude was back in production and on January 8 the LNG tanker Symphonic Breeze loaded a cargo destined for Japan.

The restart couldn’t have come at a better time for Prelude and its JV partners Shell, Japan’s INPEX Corp, Korea Gas and Taiwan’s CPC Corp,...

READ MORE